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Posted on 01/06/2013 8:26:47 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Normally I'd be inclined to run something like this on a Sunday, when I like to explore more faith-based topics. However, today is Hobby Lobby Appreciation Day, where consumers who support the Christian ownership's stand against the HHS mandate that attempts to impose a highly restrictive definition of religious expression can put their money where their mouths are. Since I don't really have a hobby at the moment, I'll instead offer a passage from the open letter written by Hobby Lobby CEO David Green, who explains why he's decided to spend a lot of money and risk even more to fight the HHS regulation that would force him to act against his religious principles.
We’re Christians, and we run our business on Christian principles. I’ve always said that the first two goals of our business are (1) to run our business in harmony with God’s laws, and (2) to focus on people more than money. And that’s what we’ve tried to do. We close early so our employees can see their families at night. We keep our stores closed on Sundays, one of the week’s biggest shopping days, so that our workers and their families can enjoy a day of rest. We believe that it is by God’s grace that Hobby Lobby has endured, and he has blessed us and our employees. We’ve not only added jobs in a weak economy, we’ve raised wages for the past four years in a row. Our full-time employees start at 80% above minimum wage.
But now, our government threatens to change all of that. A new government health care mandate says that our family business MUST provide what I believe are abortion-causing drugs as part of our health insurance. Being Christians, we don’t pay for drugs that might cause abortions, which means that we don’t cover emergency contraception, the morning-after pill or the week-after pill. We believe doing so might end a life after the moment of conception, something that is contrary to our most important beliefs. It goes against the Biblical principles on which we have run this company since day one. If we refuse to comply, we could face $1.3 million PER DAY in government fines.
Our government threatens to fine job creators in a bad economy. Our government threatens to fine a company that’s raised wages four years running. Our government threatens to fine a family for running its business according to its beliefs. It’s not right. I know people will say we ought to follow the rules; that it’s the same for everybody. But that’s not true. The government has exempted thousands of companies from this mandate, for reasons of convenience or cost. But it won’t exempt them for reasons of religious belief.
So, Hobby Lobby – and my family – are forced to make a choice. With great reluctance, we filed a lawsuit today, represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, asking a federal court to stop this mandate before it hurts our business. We don’t like to go running into court, but we no longer have a choice. We believe people are more important than the bottom line and that honoring God is more important than turning a profit.
It’s worth pointing out that the mandate doesn’t exempt actual religious organizations either, such as Catholic charities, Presbyterian hospitals, Lutheran schools, and so on. Why? That’s the crux of the issue: the Obama administration is attempting to redefine religious expression to only those activities which take place within the four walls of a place of worship, or those activities restricted only to those of a single faith. That means that Catholic hospitals would qualify only if they refused to treat and employ any non-Catholics, for instance. Can you imagine those lawsuits?
The mandate for free birth control, which is already cheap and readily available for anyone who wants it (and has federal subsidies for Medicaid recipients already in place through Title X), is just a Trojan horse in an attack on religious liberty — and even more, for freedom of choice. If businesses want to offer “free” birth control (which will get funded by premium hikes), they can already do so; no one is stopping them. Same for schools, hospitals, and private citizens who want to donate money to family-planning clinics on their own. Barack Obama and Kathleen Sebelius want to strip that choice from Americans and force everyone to subsidize the procreative choices of everyone else, even those tens of millions whose religious beliefs have heretofore never had to be part of public policy. That’s the invasion of privacy, and it’s people like David Green who are being exploited.
Update: Added a bit to the second-to-last paragraph, and also wanted to include Hobby Lobby’s online shopping website link. You can support the company from the comfort of your own home.
Thanks SeekAndFind.
RE: Hobby Lobby CEO open letter: “Honoring God is more important than turning a profit”
A fine of $1.3 Million a day will quickly bankrupt Hobby Lobby (unless the courts support their freedom to practice their faith <-— FAT CHANCE OF THAT WITH THIS SUPREME COURT).
I suspect that if they have no recourse, they could either:
1) Sell their business.
2) Relocate to another country.
3) Refuse to conform and go to jail for the cause they believe in (making them modern day martyrs).
I have a sick feeling that option number 3 will be happening...
Personally I think that when option 3 hits the fan there will be a day when there is a pillar of smoke into the sky where there is hobby lobby and a rather large bonfire in the parking lot where their good will be burned, weather it is burned in an act of defiance by the Hobby Lobby staff or burned in a show of force by obama’s thugs..... That has yet to be seen..
If there’s another way of avoiding this while remaining in business, I haven’t thought of it, but I’m sure the Green family would be open to suggestions.
Thye could defy defy defy till the bitter end....
Imagine the news covering the perp walks of a bunch of innocent people.....
Would public opinion stay with obama...
All true points - but - one of the reason zero and his merry fools get away with this is because there is NOT a huge backlash from business.
While it is important to patronize stores that are “conservative, Christian-owned” it is equally important to NOT patronize those stores that won’t speak up. Nothing talks as loud as money (or the lack thereof). If 60% of the retail stores in this country were up in arms, change would happen. One little ole chain can’t win the battle by themselves.
The worst part is - I feel fairly certain that 60% of the store owners in this country DON’T agree with this crap. They just feel like, “well, why should I speak up, it will just bring a bunch of weirdos and perverts to protest outside my stores.” If we could give them a choice between lack of sales and weirdos, MONEY WOULD TALK THE LOUDEST.
The problem for us, especially with big ticket items, there’s not much to chose from. In 2010 I bought a Ford because they didn’t take money from the government. Barely a few months later they were announcing plans for “domestic partner coverage” in their insurance. Later this summer we are going to trade in another of our cars, and I can’t find a make that at some point hasn’t pandered to perverts.
In so many cases, our only choices are only the lessor of many evils.
Yes, public opinion would stay with Obama. The people being arrested would be portrayed as right-wing psychos who hate gays and are trying to inflict their religion on others.
Besides, in business it would not come to arrest. These are corporations. The government sues, wins a judgement against the business, and the assets of the business are liquidated to pay the fines. The Green family do not personally have their assets taken away. All that happens is that HL is closed.
And the assets sold off to a more compliant company that would fill the same market niche, maybe even a company wiith connections to the Regime. Unless there is a surprise intervention by the courts, there won't be a solution within the existing social order.
Or make your life easier. There’s a libtard website called Buy Blue which caters to leftwing morons and they show which companies are leftwing. Simply avoid those companies there.
or simply follow this Freepers list of companies to support:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2974029/posts
Hobby Lobby was denied a stay of enforcement of the HHS mandate, by Sonya Sotomayor - who is now known to not be eligible to be SCOTUS because the man who nominated her - Barack Obama - has no legally-established birth facts (according to certified letters of verification from HI state registrar Alvin Onaka) and thus could never have “qualified” by Jan 20, 2009 as required by the 20th Amendment. Since he failed to qualify only the Vice President elect (Joe Biden) is allowed by the 20th Amendment to “act as President”, including nominating Supreme Court justices.
If Hobby Lobby is serious about wanting to fight this - and I believe they are - then they can do themselves and the country a favor by responding to Sotomayor’s denial of the stay by filing a claim that they have become aware of new information which legally indicates that Sotomayor is not eligible to be on SCOTUS and thus CANNOT deny them a stay.
They are already recognized as having “standing”, the issue is extremely relevant to how the government is still aggrieving them, and the issue would have to be taken up very quickly - more quickly than any other plaintiff could get a case before SCOTUS.
They never asked for this position, but Hobby Lobby - like Esther in the Old Testament - may well have been placed in this position for such a time as this, in order to save their people from an enemy intent on doing all Christians severe harm.
We need to support Hobby Lobby, but one of the best ways to do that, IMHO, is to encourage them to take the legal tactic that they may have been specifically placed by God to use.
I faxed their attorney’s office, but I’m not an attorney so they have no idea if I know what I’m talking about. We need to get their attention, though, so that their attorney will look into this.
I feel badly because I was just asking everybody’s help to contact Congress and it wasn’t pulled together quickly enough. Now I have to ask the same thing, only with Hobby Lobby.
Please - especially if you are an attorney and understand and agree with the legal reasoning presented by Larry Klayman in his letter to Bob Bauer (seen at http://butterdezillion.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/complete-klayman-letter-to-bauer.pdf ) - please contact the attorney for Hobby Lobby (or the owners) and let them know that they may have been placed in their particular position for such a time as this. They have exactly the standing, just cause, legal documents to provide the proof of the claim, already-existent urgent SCOTUS situation , and backing of the religious-liberty community to be able to confront the danger on behalf of all of us. There’s nothing for them to lose and everything to be gained.
If you have a ping list, please ping the list so we can get the biggest response - and hopefully from some attorneys, since they have more clout than non-attorneys.
Thanks! I sincerely apologize for being a pest lately; seems like this may be the one realistic chance left.
Sotomayer is a waste of time. Hobby Lobby can now take their case to another SCOTUS member.
But if they challenge Sotomayor’s ability to be on SCOTUS they also challenge Kagan’s. And if Sotomayor and Kagan are out because they were nominated by somebody who couldn’t “act as President”, then the whole balance of the court changes in hearing the Obamacare issue.
It could almost be called a gift of God that Sotomayor did this, because it gives the golden opportunity to immediately confront Obama and eventually ALL his illegal nominations and appointments.
The other thing is that if the challenge is directly to Sotomayor, and Kagan is mentioned in the same motion, those two would HAVE to recuse themselves immediately. Which immediately changes the balance of EVERYTHING at SCOTUS. That’s why I say having Sotomayor make the denial could be a lifeline gift from God.
The Muslim Brotherhood is ecstatic that their Moslem puppet Obama will be forced to close down the anti-islamic store chain.
I intend to overpay if necessary for an AR-15 target upper receiver at my local gun show this Saturday. Non-violent ways of telling the government where to put their infringements are getting more expensive every day.
I LOVE Hobby Lobby! went yesterday with my daughter and found a slue of things to buy but I am into crafts. When we first arrived the parking lot was only half full but by the time we left they were packed.
They also sell patio furniture and outdoor items. It is a good thing I live an hour away or I would be broke ..I can’t resist the pretty things they sell.
Shame this ... I didn’t hear that yesterday was a HL appreciation day. My teenage daughter likes to draw laying out on the floor and I was thinking of getting her a proper drawing desk as a post-Xmas present.
One additional nice thing about HL is that they always have 40% off one item (per customer, per day) coupon that can be printed from their website or just displayed for the cashier on a smartphone.
” Refuse to conform and go to jail for the cause they believe in (making them modern day martyrs) “
wow - now that would be breaking news. God bless them in their struggle.
Thanks for the Freeper list which I had never seen before. Strangely enough, most of the companies on the boycott list I was already avoiding for one reason or another. The Buy Blue website you are referring to apparently closed in 2007. Probably few left wing morons that can read.
Unfortunately all these list point to the same thing I’ve been lamenting. When it comes to big ticket items, it is apparently a crap shoot. And in some cases, there simply may be none.
I had about eliminated Ford from our choices this year over their ‘domestic partners’ BS. But doing a little searching I find similar nonsense linked in some way to just about every other car brand! Ditto for appliance makers and the refrigerator we’ll be buying this month. I just really wish there was a way to keep my major purchases from going to companies run by perverts and jackasses.
I concur and am ready to join you.
Darn. I forgot it. I don’t think there was anything like CFA day.
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